Sabrina Ionescu gets candid on how family keeps her sane amid WNBA finals pressure 

By Jone Mallorca

Modified Oct 13, 2024 17:52 GMT

Sabrina Ionescu struggled offense-wise late in the fourth quarter and in the overtime of Game 1 of the WNBA Finals against the Lynx. Amid all the criticisms from basketball fans for her performance, Ionescu highlighted how important her family is at this stage of the series.

In her last outing, Liberty's Ionescu scored 19 points while shooting 30.8%, including 33.3% from three-point range. He also had five rebounds and four steals for the game. Despite having an 18-point lead against the second-ranked defense, they came up short in closing out the victory as Minnesota found a way to overcome the huge deficit.

Her Hoop Stats (@herhoopstats) shared Ionescu's comments on Sunday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"25 people here from California, so it's been really nice to have them all, you know, kind of every step of the way," Ionescu said to a reporter. "They're coming to Minnesota as well, so they're kind of along on this journey. It's great I mean. I saw them yesterday and was able to just kind of forget about basketball for a little bit."

"At this point in the season, when you've kind of been on this emotional high for almost a month now of this win or go home mentality — it's nice to just sometimes step outside of that and be around the people you love."

Game 2 of the WNBA Finals is scheduled today at noon (Pacific Time) and will be played at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

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Sabrina Ionescu talked about the time she was able to pick apart Kobe Bryant's basketball mind

Kobe Bryant was one of the NBA legends several athletes wanted to learn from. Among them was Sabrina Ionescu who shared what it was like to work out with the "Black Mamba," as per Vanity Fair's Lisa Robinson.

"We had worked out together a few times, and he came to visit me when [Oregon] played in LA," Ionescu said. "He had such attention to detail, just all the small fundamental things: the footwork, the arc of your shot when you fadeaway — all those minute details that play into being one of the greatest basketball players in the world, which he was."

New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu in attendance of memorial in celebration of life for Kobe and Gianna Bryant - Source: Imagn

From the many intricacies of basketball to the simple fundamentals of the game, Ionescu expressed his admiration for how critical the sessions were for her development as a basketball player.

The Liberty star put up 18.2 points (39.4% shooting, including 33.3% from beyond the arc), 6.2 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game this season. She was critical for New York in securing a league-best record of 32-8.